Meanwhile, David Moyes' men could only muster a 2-2 draw with rock-bottom Fulham at Old Trafford, so anything but victory tonight should extinguish any faint hope left of claiming fourth.

As the first graphic - from whoscored.com - shows, both sides' clearly preferred route of attack is down the right flank, with a shared amount of attacks starting on the left channel and through the centre.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Arsene Wenger's team have enjoyed more possession, have a better pass completion rate and have converted more chances. Meanwhile, United have played significantly more long balls (a far less pleasing statistic.)

The next graphic shows the most recent meetings between the two sides.

United came out on top earlier in the season at Old Trafford, with a Robin van Persie header enough to separate the teams.

Sir Alex Ferguson's United also got the better of Arsenal in last season's clash at Old Trafford, while the sides played out a draw in the last encounter at the Emirates. Van Persie has come back to haunt his ex-club by scoring in every game since his move to Manchester.

In 2011/12, the 8-2 demolition of Arsenal at Old Trafford just goes to show how substantially things have changed at both clubs.

The last time the Gunners tasted victory in this fixture was at the end of the 2010/11 campaign, when one goal was enough to clinch the points at the Emirates.

The final graphic gives us a comparison of two key men: Mesut Ozil and Wayne Rooney.

The statistics show that United's Rooney has been the more effective player this season and provides evidence that Ozil has a long way to go if he is to justify his £42.5m price-tag.

Having made an equal number of appearances, Rooney not only edges it on number of assists, but has scored more than double the amount of goals that the German has.

Ozil does, however, lead the way for completing more key passes and dribbles per game.